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Then there’s Toni Morris, a Fayetteville counselor. Kennedy heard Morris speak on Sunday during a Western Wake Dems forum at Cary High School.

But she didn’t even mention Morris when considering who could beat incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers, considered the likely Republican candidate, this November.

“I still need to hear a little more,” Kennedy said.

The candidates mostly stuck to their established positions. There’s no clear front-runner leading up to the primary on May 6, and many of the 120 Democrats at the Cary event seemed undecided.

About 80,000 – 18 percent – of the 434,500 registered voters in District 2 live in Wake County. Of those, about 26,200 are registered Democrats. About 26,700 are Republicans and about 26,900 are not affiliated.

The district favors a Republican candidate, but district residents such as Witold Urbanowicz hope a Democrat can win the seat for the first time since Bob Etheridge won in 2008.

Urbanowicz and his wife moved to Cary from Brooklyn last year. The 70-year-old is just wading into local politics and said he’s still on the fence.

He likes Aiken. But he worries that Aiken, who’s openly gay, could struggle to win support in a district that’s mostly rural and conservative.

“I hate it, but it’s still that kind of world in some places,” he said.

Crisco doesn’t necessarily have everything Urbanowicz wants in a candidate. But Crisco might be “the most electable,” he said.

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A public meeting is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, on design of phase three of the Higgins Greenway — the first greenway to downtown Cary. The meeting will be at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 221 Union St.